NWS: Tornado that hit Richmond was an EF0

RICHMOND, Ind. — Twenty-eight seconds.

That's the amount of time that passes according to the timestamp from the moment that you can see the last of the Elite Nail employees leave the salon to when you notice the first sign that something's amiss.

In the upper-right part of the image, a small sign on a thin, metal pole falls forward. Immediately after, dust and debris explodes across the screen, leaving the store a complete mess.

Jimmy Nguyen didn't know what he was looking at as he reviewed surveillance video from the store. His mom, Elite Nails co-owner Tina, had called shortly before to tell him the salon had been destroyed. When Jimmy first pulled up the security footage on his phone, he thought someone must have broken in and ransacked the place.

"I logged in and I see the store's destroyed, and then I go back 10, 20 minutes, the store's looking good. So I keep trying to fine-tune it to get it to the point to see who ran in and how many people ran in, things like that," Nguyen said.

"I keep narrowing it down. One second, the store's good. One second, it's not. I can't figure this out. There's no way they ran into the store and destroyed everything in like a minute.

"Finally, I get to the point where I watch a whole minute of it and I realize, 'Oh, wow. There's a storm that just happened.'"

A tornado, to be precise.

Judging by the video and Richmond Fire Department drone photos of the damage, the tornado that hit Richmond's east side just before 10 p.m. Saturday punched a hole in the roof of the Office Max store that shares a wall with Elite Nails at the Richmond Mall. The resulting pressure wave blew out that wall, leaving a hole between the two businesses.

The tornado was an EF0, the smallest on the scale used to measure such storms.

According to the final assessment released by the National Weather Service's office in Wilmington, Ohio, on Monday, the tornado first landed along South 37th Street just to the south of Backmeyer Road.

It then moved north-northeast, taking off 5-10 percent of the roof of the Brookdale Richmond assisted-living center on South A Street and knocking down a tree.

But it wasn't until the tornado reached the mall that its destructive tendencies really let loose.

Several air handlers on the mall's roof were removed, with one blowing northeast onto National Road East. Some 50 percent of the glass for the J.C. Penney store was blown in, and a 7-foot-tall-by-30-foot-long brick wall was destroyed.

Inside the building, about eight businesses suffered at least some damage, primarily in the form of shattered windows and scattered merchandise.

Winds at the mall are estimated to have been about 85 mph, the highest end for an EF0 tornado.

Businesses on the other side of National Road East also had damage to isolated windows, signage and siding. A concrete table at Rally's was moved several feet from its normal spot.

The storm's only officially reported injuries came at the Speedway station at National Road East and Hayes Arboretum Road when an adult and a child sitting in a car suffered minor cuts when the windows of the vehicle were blown in.

From there, the tornado began tearing up trees along Woodside Drive, knocking a large hardwood and a metal television antenna onto a house. The property next door had its garage shifted and a tree limb dropped onto the house.

The last of the damage was found along Gravel Pit Road in the form of more felled trees.

In all, the 100-yard-wide destructive force traveled 1.6 miles and lasted just three minutes. But it's impact will be felt much longer.

Damage assessment continued for most of the Richmond Mall property Monday morning, but there were some signs of life returning to normal.

The Dillard's department store on the mall's south side reopened to customers, although its doors leading into the mall proper remain closed.

From that vantage point, there were no signs of the damage done within, but there still were plenty of reminders outside.

Shattered windows around the property have been boarded up, and crews were busy working on the roof over the Office Max store.

On the building's east side, construction workers were back on the job preparing the former Sears space for its new life as the home of Dunham's Sports.

McAlister's Deli remained closed to start the day, but the other restaurants on mall property — Chili's and Olive Garden — were taking customers.

Representatives from Hull Property Group, the owner of the Richmond Mall, were onsite Monday, but there was no immediate word on a timeline for making repairs to the facility.

"At this time, we are still assessing the damage and formulating a plan of action to fix the damages as soon as possible," Coles Doyle, Hull Property Group's media spokesperson, said Sunday morning.

"The interior of the mall will remain closed at this time. We are taking the necessary steps to be able to address the damage and set a timeline for reopening. We will communicate updates and openings when we have more information to share."

Jason Truitt is the team leader and senior reporter at the Palladium-Item. Contact him at (765) 973-4459 or jtruitt@pal-item.com.